Wood Orchid Wild
by prolificfic
Summary: The story of Mulan and her troubles with accepting herself. Mulan deals with the complications of her feelings following the news of Aurora being pregnant. How will Mulan deal with her forbidden feelings?


Part 1: The Favour

Mulan reeled away from her dead opponent. A large amount of blood had splattered through her eye holes and into her eyes; she needed to remove her helmet and rub the blood out if she wanted to see again. It was a risky move considering she was in the middle of battle, but if she didn't get her eyesight back soon she would be as good as dead. She couldn't remove her gauntlets with enough time to rub her eyes and get them back on without getting hacked in two. Her only option was to find some sort of fabric. Her hands fumbled blindly, all feeling was lost due to the heavy gloves that covered her hands. _If I don't think quickly I'll be dead at the hands of one of these men _she thought, her hands still fumbling.

She had removed her cape that morning so none of the men could grab it and tug her on her back, how badly she yearned for the red cloth to give her back her eyes. Suddenly a thought occurred to her. She dug into the front of her armour and plucked a pink piece of fabric from her breastplate. She felt a pang of guilt at defiling the beautiful fabric, a favour that was from her unrequited love; a sign of goodwill and friendship. She knew that she would be as good as dead if she didn't use it and she knew she was no use to anyone dead.

Blindly she rubbed away the blood from her eyes. Her eyesight returned slowly, shapes and figures became less and less blurry; she focused on the pink fabric in her hands. The beautiful pink favour from Aurora`s dress was no longer only pink, now it was stained red with her blood. A wave of regret filled her. She looked up from the fabric to her surroundings. Robin Hood`s men were fighting at her sides. She looked back down at the favour in her hands. She felt tears welling up in her eyes, the pain in the center of her chest felt gaping and empty.

Quickly anger overtook her and filled the hole in her chest, it replaced the fleeting moment of weakness she had felt. She clenched the bloodstained pink cloth in her fist and shoved the favour back down her breast plate. She threw herself headlong into the fray of men ahead of her, eyes shining with vigor and anger.

The first man she saw was facing away from her; he was nearly overpowering her comrade. Silent and deadly she plunged her sword deep into his chest. She felt him shudder; a moan escaped from his lips. She ripped her sword from his heart. Warm blood was still dripping off her sword as she stabbed the man next to him.

Her blood boiled.

The adrenaline had kicked in.

She would be unstoppable now.

* * *

She had decided not to cry since that day. After she discovered Aurora was pregnant with Mulan's first love Philip, she knew there was no hope for her and Aurora. A family binds two lovers closer together than anything she could offer, and she could never burden Aurora with the knowledge of her true feelings. She felt the weight of her loss in her heart. _Perhaps a miscarriage or something would occur... – wait, what am I thinking!? _

She shot up out of her bed. Pushing her blankets back she stepped onto the hard dirt ground. Her tent hung a few inches above her. She had gone to bed in the early afternoon after the fight. _It`s dark_,_ it must be night _she thought. Disgust filled her stomach, she had wished Aurora and Philip a miscarriage, and only horrible humans think things like that.

Suddenly the memory of what Snow had told her about back when they had teamed up came flooding into her mind.

"_They`re intrusive thoughts" said Snow informatively. _

"_Intrusive thoughts, hmm, that's what a Doctor named Jiminy Cricket said to you?" Mulan had replied in disbelief "And he's from our land as well?"_

"_Well yes, everybody from Storybrooke is, and yes I believe him, he's very wise" Snow replied and walked off to scout further ahead._

She had thought Snow was crazy back then but she suddenly felt the need to believe her. Mulan rubbed her eyes and dressed. As soon as she was finished she walked out of the tent, she didn't want to let anymore of those thoughts into her head.

She walked off a few tents over to Robin's large tent. She was apprehensive; she didn't want to wake him or his son if they had gone to bed

"Robin?" she called out to his tent. After a few moments of silence she called out again is a loud whisper. More silence followed. He must be out or asleep and she definitely didn't want to wake him, he had fought hard in the fight earlier and probably needed some rest.

She walked away from the tent and towards the large bonfire in the center of the camp. For a travelling party they travelled in some style. The red tents that surrounded the fire in the center were draped with ornate gold cloth; they added attractiveness to the otherwise plain camp. Their horses saddles were mounted on a post, some were plain but a few had brilliant colours of red, blue, green and pink woven into them. The men had cut down some trees to make makeshift benches around the fire; one of the men must have been bored since there was a bear carved into more than half of the bench. A large pot hung over a smaller fire, John Killington was attending to dinner.

Mulan approached John and the pot of stew. She leaned over the fire to look into the pot. Some meat that looked unfamiliar to her was cooking along with chives and carrots.

"What is _that?_" said Mulan in a reproachful tone.

"It's me secret surprise stew, I went and caught it a few hours ago meself lovely" replied John, glowing with pride.

"I know that John, but what meat is it? I have never seen anything like this in my life."

"This be some Minotaur meat, ain't ye never eaten any before?" Mulan shook her head; she had never thought to eat Minotaur. "It's good, ere' have a taste" he scooped a wooden ladle into the pot and brought out a steaming pool of dark brown meat and vegetables.

"It is alright John. I can wait until everyone else is having dinner" said Mulan politely. Truthfully, she wasn't hungry; they say an empty heart leaves no room for thought of an empty stomach. It sounded silly to her when Grandma Hau had said it to her five years ago, but now she understood how right it was. She walked away quickly towards her tent before John could prompt her to eat again, even her morbid thoughts seemed more appealing than his stew.

As she walked she found her mind trailing off. As she grew closer and closer to her tent she felt her feet moving towards the forest behind. She exited the clearing where they had set camp. She examined her surroundings, making sure the area had not been disturbed by footprints or dangerous wild animals. She walked on making sure her steps were silent. Mulan walked among the tall trees, thick roots sprang from the forest floor. Everything was rich and alive. Birds flew overhead and moss grew on rocks and tree alike. She walked over to a large rock and sat down. It was so peaceful and quiet; she began to think about the fight earlier that morning.

She began to remember how she had used Aurora`s favour to rub the blood from her face. She pulled it from her pocket. The pink cloth was smeared with blood that ruined the delicacy it had once had. She felt herself saddening at the memory of receiving it.

She had finished all of her preparations to leave and was about to mount her horse to meet up with Robin and his men. She was stuffing the last loaf of bread that she could fit into her saddle bag when Aurora had come and sought her out.

"Mulan?" the soft voice had chimed behind her. Mulan had known she was approaching so she didn't turn at the sound of Aurora's voice.

"Yes Aurora" she said, fixing and tightening her horses saddle straps in order to look busy.

"I know you said you wanted to join Robin's Hood, but I just wanted to know how thankful I am for everything that you've done for us, I mean, protecting me, and helping Philip" she paused, Mulan turned and looked at her, Aurora's eyes looked sad, "I'll really miss you, you've done so much for us, more than I can ever repay." Mulan swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Aurora, you don't need to –"

"But I do, I must give you something, something you can remember when you're sad or angry or if you ever get hurt while fighting" Aurora approached Mulan suddenly. Her hand went for Mulan's belt.

"What are you doing?" said Mulan while taking a step away from Aurora.

"I need your knife for a moment, I promise I'll give it back" Mulan handed Aurora her knife, confused at Aurora's intention. Aurora picked up her skirt, at the bottom she began hacking at the fabric, cutting away until a small square was cut. Aurora handed the knife back to Mulan who fastened it back into her belt.

"They say women often give men favours before battle to give them a reason to fight. I know you're no man and I know we are both women, but take this with you, and when you feel as if you might give up, pull it out and remember that I'm still counting on you to live" Aurora then handed the pink favour over to Mulan. Mulan stared at it shocked and surprised. "Go on, take it! If you don't I'll have ruined my dress for nothing"

"Aurora, I can't take this from you" said Mulan, turning away again.

"What? Why? It's to serve as a reminder of our friendship" _friendship, _the word was a vicious reminder, it stabbed at her heart. A smile had spread across Aurora's face, a smile that was meant to coax her into accepting.

"No Aurora, I won't take it, I'll just lose it or wreck it on the field anyways. Let it be a cloth for your baby" Aurora's smile then disappeared and the sad look in her eyes she had, had before returned.

"Okay, if that's what you want...goodbye Mulan, safe—"

Suddenly a shout erupted from a little ways ahead, "Mulan! Are you almost ready? You said you'd be at the meeting place by now" Robin Hood strolled into the clearing. Mulan turned to look at Robin who was approaching on horseback.

Robin began questioning Mulan on her tardiness, she began to explain how Aurora had unexpectedly come and said goodbye. She turned to indicate who she was talking too but Aurora was already gone, her favour as well.

Mulan stood up quickly; hooves could be heard thundering through the forest. A rider appeared suddenly. She observed that there were no weapons in his hands. He stopped twenty feet away, a safe distance for Mulan.

"Who are you? What is your business?" shouted Mulan to the man.

"Official business, I have a letter to deliver to a young woman named Mulan" the rider yelled back. "She is said to wear armour and fight with the strength of kings, actually, you're wearing armour, might you be Mulan?"

"I am Mulan, who is the letter from?"

"Prince Philip and Princess Aurora have sent me to deliver this letter" the rider replied, Mulan's heart dropped. "I'm Newt, the royal messenger."

She began contemplating the benefits of having the letter and not having it. If she never read it, she would never be responsible for its contents; ignorance would grant her that privilege. However, if she did refuse the letter this messenger would return directly to them and inform them of her choice to ignore the letter. What if it was something important? She could take the letter, but she would be too tempted to read it if she had it.

"Okay, you can deliver it, come here" she said.


End file.
